Breaking the seal on a new regime

Puget Sound had plenty to
celebrate in Jeff Thomas' coaching debut.

Puget Sound athletics photo

The first week of the season, by its very definition, is about
new beginnings. And when a fresh season also comes with a brand new
coaching staff, it’s often understood that things
haven’t been going too well. All but the most optimistic
supporters of such programs expect success in the long term, while
accepting that there might be struggles initially.

But for a fortunate few first-time head coaches, the stars and
Week 1 schedules align to deliver a message more powerful than any
phrase bellowed in a pre-game pep talk: Follow the plan, and
we’ll win.

“It’s great because it gives legitimacy across so many
levels,” said Jeff Thomas, who guided Puget Sound to a 36-19
victory – the school’s first since 2008 -- over Pacific
in his first game as Loggers coach. “Players get to walk
across campus with their heads held high. … And it also
legitimizes all the little things we’re talking about in
practice, following the drill, running hard through the cones. When
I got here, they had to take us on blind faith. Now they see that
we know what we’re talking about.”

Winning “certainly gives the stamp of approval, gives
credence to what you’re talking about,” agrees Bob
Chesney, who, clear across the country, coached Salve Regina to a
6-3 win against Worcester Polytech in his debut.

If a head coach is a man of many trades, one of them is salesman.
He’s pitching a message, often of discipline and attention to
detail, not just to his players, but to a campus and everyone
involved on it.

“After I got hired, I spoke at every local service group and
alumni association, I tried to talk to every community group that I
could,” said Thomas, formerly the offensive coordinator at
Redlands. “And until we win, it’s just talk.”

The victory -- even if it came against the Boxers, whose coach,
Keith Buckley, was also making his debut as well as reviving
Pacific football after 19 years -- was satisfying.

“I think you’re going to see a groundswell of support
now that people see [all the talk] will produce results,”
Thomas said, “rather than just a guy being excited all the
time.”

Thomas delivered his message of change on the heels of UPS’s
third 0-9 season of the decade. Salve Regina, on the other hand,
had risen from 1-8 in 2006 to consecutive four-win seasons under
Chris Robertson, who left abruptly in the spring to return to WPI,
where he replaced the retiring Ed Zaloom. Chesney, a 2000 Dickinson
graduate, was hired from Johns Hopkins in April and didn’t
arrive in Rhode Island until mid-May. The Seahawks’
recruiting class was virtually complete, and brought in to play in
Robertson’s systems.

The circumstances added a layer of intrigue to the Salve-WPI
opener, one Chesney thought presented a problem for a debut
game.

“Here I am walking into my first job, being a defensive
guy,” he said. “I thought it was a recipe for
disaster.” WPI, Chesney points out, runs a spread-option
offense featuring elements of the veer, traps and triple option. It
was nothing he hadn’t seen before as the Blue Jays’
defensive coordinator, preparing for Gettysburg and Dickinson on a
regular basis. But “it’s a tough situation in Week 1,
having to prepare for that type of offense.”

The Salve defense, though, got the coaches’ message fine.
WPI gained just 168 yards, including 39 passing, and had five first
downs. Ernie Mello had a 56-yard run for the Engineers, and
WPI’s other 32 rushes totaled 73 yards (2.3 per carry).

What made the game so interesting is that WPI held the Seahawks to
180 yards. In an odd way, the fact that the win didn’t come
easily makes the message from Chesney, who praised Salve’s
special teams as the unit that really played well, more powerful.
On one hand, if players buy into the program, victories are the
reward. On the other, there’s a lot of work yet to do, and it
doesn’t take a detailed review of game video to realize
it.

Thomas hasn’t had to worry about his players resting on
their laurels with a road trip to SCIAC power Occidental in Week 2,
but even their reaction to the long-awaited victory was a
surprise.

“It was interesting, I had kind of pictured [what the first
win would be like],” Thomas said. “I had imagined in my
head guys celebrating like we won a Super Bowl, and it wasn’t
like that at all. They kind of treated it like a business deal. A
bunch of our senior leaders were so disappointed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th
quarter effort, they apologized to me after the game. They
understood that we should have put that team away in the first
quarter.”

The Loggers did build a 29-3 lead prior to halftime before Pacific
closed the gap. And the teams, whose season-opening meeting was a
nonconference game, meet again in NWC play in Week 9 (Oct. 30).
Thomas expects Buckley’s Boxers to be much tougher the second
time around; as a new coach and staff repeats their message, young
players catch on and improve rapidly.

In the Loggers’ case, the catching on has been evident in
this week’s practices, likely at least partially attributable
to the lingering feeling from winning.

“The amount of talking that took place between plays [at
practice] … defensive players calling out crossing routes,
talking to each other between plays, was legitimately 10 times
better than its ever been since I’ve been here,” said
Thomas, a 2003 Redlands grad. “It’s not where we need
to get to by the time conference play starts, but they can see why
we do those things, and that it pays off.”

Chesney, who says he’s been so invested as an assistant at
Norwich, Delaware Valley, King’s and JHU that his first win
felt “like another day at the office,” has a handful of
help delivering his message. On the Seahawks’ staff are Bob
Chesney, Sr., longtime coach of Mount Carmel (Pa.) High, and the
younger Bob’s brother, Nick, a former player at Dickinson and
Susquehanna. The family connections come in handy since
Chesney’s wife gave birth to a baby girl, Lyla Rae, at the
start of preseason camp. While the coach occasionally runs home to
steal a few moments with his new daughter, the Seahawks are in good
hands. In addition to Chesney’s father and brother, Colin
Wixted, last season’s Centennial Conference player of the
year as a Johns Hopkins strong safety, and David Hanna, a 1999
Kalamazoo grad who’s also coached at Washington & Lee and
Johns Hopkins, are on staff.

Yet with all that wisdom on the sidelines, nothing speaks louder
than Saturday’s 6-3 victory.

“Any time a new coaching staff comes in, players are going
to have questions and concerns,” Chesney said.
“They’ll always have concerns about what you’re
doing – is it right or wrong or just different? Winning cures
a lot of ills.”

Ten things that stand out after Week 1’s games:
1. I’ve never met a coach who liked losing, but
there’s got to be some good in Castleton State pushing a
Plymouth State team NEFC coaches in Kickoff ’10 all thought
was a conference title contender to the fourth quarter in a 16-14
loss. Same for St. Vincent giving Bridgewater (Va.) a scare in a
19-14 loss. The Bearcats, whose lone win in three seasons has come
against Gallaudet, have a unique connection with the Eagles, since
coach Bob Colbert was Bridgewater’s longtime offensive
coordinator and associate head coach. Castleton, on the other hand,
went 3-6 last season, its first as a program, but two of the wins
came against fellow first-year Anna Maria, and the other against
winless Becker. Beating the Panthers would have been a win to
really build on. Beating the Eagles would have felt similar for St.
Vincent.

2. The line between ‘Oh, they’re off a sharp
start’ and ‘Okay, that’s completely unnecessary
’ is somewhere between the mid-50s/low 60s (Huntingdon and
Randolph-Macon, 54 points in Week 1; St. John Fisher and Trine 55;
St. John’s 56; Augsburg, 62) and 78 (Utica, in a 59-point win
against Becker).

3. Here’s why the WIAC gets so much respect in the
conference rankings: Its last place team from last season, UW-River
Falls (3-7, 1-6) opens up in Week 1 at No. 11 Ohio Northern, and is
tied at 21 midway through the third quarter before losing, 35-21.
ONU is a top-tier team in the No. 2 most-respected conference in
D-III. And then in Week 2, UW-RF travels to fifth-ranked St.
Thomas, while UW-Oshkosh (4-6, 2-5 last year) schedules No. 1 Mount
Union, UW-La Crosse (5-5, 2-5) hosts No. 6 Mary Hardin-Baylor and
UW-Eau Claire (6-4, 4-3) hosts No. 9 St. John’s.

4. As noted in the podcast and Around the East, the Empire 6, er,
8, is the big winner in Week 1, going 6-0 in non-conference play.
On the other end of the spectrum: the MAC (1-5) and MIAA (1-6).

5. If it keeps giving us games like Willamette at Hardin-Simmons
(each coming off victories on long Week 1 road trips) and Redlands
at East Texas Baptist, we might wish all of D-III were stuck on
geographic islands with limited scheduling options.

6. The Lycoming-Rowan series started years after ATN really wanted
to see it, but it still delivered. The Profs took a 24-point lead
only to need a fourth-down stop with 3:01 left to preserve a 24-17
victory.

7. A little love for Norwich, whose 0-3 start last season included
a 28-27 loss to Western New England. The Cadets rebounded to reel
off eight consecutive wins, and a ninth Saturday: a 35-7 home
thumping of WNEC.

8. Alfred’s 37-0 win against Widener was one of Week
1’s most eye-opening finals, while Hanover’s 28-27
comeback against Centre seemed like the best finish.

9. The new video play of the week is going to be Hidden-Video fun.
With the amount of ground we cover and the number of teams using
YouTube and other advances in game video, no reason we
shouldn’t be able to share a bunch we haven’t seen
before with each other and the rest of the football world. The next
Miracle in Missisisippi is out there.

10. Five games of note in Week 2: No. 4 Linfield at No. 25 Cal
Lutheran, No. 20 Washington & Jefferson at No. 10 Delaware
Valley, No. 13 Willamette at No. 14 Hardin-Simmons, Cortland State
at Kean, Johns Hopkins at Randolph-Macon. As always on Friday
morning, the Triple Take on the Daily Dose will provide perspective
on the weekend’s slate.

Rivalry spotlight

Because of conference obligations, or perhaps just out of a
desire to start the season with a bang, some teams don’t wait
at all – much less until Week 11 – to play their
rivals.

In Week 1, the
Backyard Brawl delivered again, the third season in four that
the Choctaws have won by four points or fewer. The Gate City Soup
Bowl was tasty as well, with Greensboro defeating Guilford, 17-15,
in the name of a
good cause. There’s photo and video here.
And on the very first night of the season, last Thursday, a
thrilling 15-12 Chowder
Bowl win by SUNY-Maritime over Mass. Maritime, was the
Privateers’ fourth straight.

In Week 2, I’ll be checking out Coast Guard and Merchant
Marine in the
Secretaries’ Cup in person in New London, Conn.

The
rivalries ATN can pretty well keep track of, but with new
trophy games popping up every season(scroll to Ten Best), ATN
always appreciates insight and a heads-up on upcoming matchups. If
you’re kind enough to point ATN in the right direction, there
will be an effort made to highlight the game in this spot.

Who are those
guys?

Here’s where ATN helps you sort out Olivet from Olivet
Nazarene, Pacific from Azusa Pacific, and the familiar from any
other unfamiliar names you see on the national
schedule. Throughout the season, ATN will analyze and keep
track of how Division III does against Division I-FCS (still better
known as I-AA), Division II and NAIA.

This week, Sul Ross State gets a visit from Division II Western
New Mexico, which is about the same distance (320 miles) from the
Alpine, Tex. campus as ASC rival Hardin-Simmons. Geography seems to
be behind some of this week’s other schedule pairings. Valley
City State in North Dakota is actually much closer to
Concordia-Moorhead (about an hour’s drive) than all of its
Minnesota rivals.

In Week 1, ATN didn’t mention former Division III member
Menlo on the list, and it pulled a 42-25 upset against Occidental,
which is starting its season with longtime coach Dale Widolff on a
four-game suspension. Counting the Oaks as NAIA now, that tipped
the scales away from D-III in Week 1, though the matchups involving
ranked teams went as expected. Coe, ranked 12th last week in D-III,
beat Iowa Wesleyan, 48-21, while Dickinson State (18th in NAIA) and
Taylor (No. 22) beat Concordia-Moorhead and Anderson, respectively.
UW-Stout’s missed extra point in overtime was costly in a
14-13 loss to Black Hills State.

Follow Around the Nation …
When the column publishes on Thursdays
When ATN travels on Saturdays, trip highlights are blogged on The Daily Dose. ATN will
be in Connecticut in Week 2.
Mondays, Pat Coleman and I wrap up the week that was in our
podcast. Download
from iTunes or listen to it in the Daily Dose’s media
player.
Throughout the week on Twitter. Follow @D3Keith.
Further discussions raised here on Around the Nation’s Post Patterns
thread, at the top of the General Football board.

The press box

Correction: An early version of this column listed the wrong head
coach in Grinnell's winning debut. Jeff Pedersen coached the
Pioneers to their 45-35 win against Macalester.

Readers: Around the Nation encourages your opinions on the column,
the
top 25, moments to remember for the year-in-review, insight on
rivalry and trophy games, and whatever else crosses your mind.
Readers can best get a response by posting on Around the Nation's
running thread on Post
Patterns (under general football). Send e-mail to
keith.mcmillan@d3sports.com or use our feedback
form.

Already this season, ATN is seeking suggestions for road trips in
October and November (ATN especially likes non-Saturday afternoon
kickoffs that can be paired with a game at a traditional time).

Sports Information Directors: Both the e-mail address and street
address are new this season. To contact Keith McMillan, use
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